Tuesday, October 09, 2007

After decades of banking with Bank of America and using their credit cards, I discovered, to my chagrin, that they were charging me an unbelievable 38% interest. They refused to lower that rate to the more reasonable, lower rates of my other cards.

So, I canceled the card.

Months later, got a notice of a credit of over US$140 on the card. No way on the hard copy to ask for the credit back (other credit card companies, upon cancellation, automatically mail you a check with the refund).

With this Bank of America credit card, however, the poor customer service was as follows:

Refused to lower the interest rate.

Fought me against cancellation.

After cancellation, took 4 months to mail a notice of the credit.

No way on the hard copy to ask for a check for the refund.

I had to call the 800 number. No clear way to ask for a refund or speak to a human being.

I then had to click on "report lost card" to get an option (FINALLY and counter-intuitively to have a refund check mailed which will take 7-10 days).

Saturday, October 06, 2007

Chinese, like all human beings, love to travel and love their holidays. However, given the population density in China, it is advisable NOT to travel during holidays and try to time your travel and vacationing when most of the 1.3 billion Chinese are working.

Then again, if you want to experience foot-to-foot crowds as dense as in the planet Gideon in Star Trek, then by all means go to China during their holidays.